Levelling the Score
by everlovingdeer
Summary: "Smart and handsome; you're the perfect package Lupin."
1. Levelling the Score

Had Ancient Ruins always been so utterly boring? When I had first chosen the subject, I'd been enthralled by the study of what many others called boring. But I liked looking through the ancient texts and understanding them. Or rather, I had, until all our lessons became completely theoretical and suddenly there was very few practical lessons. I had chosen the subject back in third year and now that I was in my sixth, I majorly regretted it. Salazar, it was mind numbingly boring.

But then again, I thought as my eyes settled onto the back of a turquoise blue head, the lesson didn't need to necessarily _remain_ boring. Not when I could play my favourite game of flustering Lupin a little.

Looking back to the passage of text that we'd been assigned to translate, I erased the last sentence I had written and replaced it with one I knew was wrong. The mistake was only slight; enough to catch Lupin's attention without making him question my intelligence.

"Lupin," I called out quietly to the Hufflepuff sat directly in front of me.

He glanced over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow at me. "What is it, Owens?"

"Are you finished with your translation?" He nodded and I smiled the smile that I knew caught him off guard. And sure enough, there it was; the beginning of pink blooming at the root of his hair. "Would you mind looking over mine for me?"

"Sure," he murmured, turning in his seat to face my desk. His desk mate Barnes, glanced curiously back at us and gave up pretending to complete his work. Instead he copied Lupin and turned in his seat.

"She didn't call _you_ ," Lauren said from beside me, shooting Barnes a look.

"I don't remember this conversation involving _you_ either," Barnes shot back.

Lupin and I shared a look, one that made the tips of his ears redden slightly. Merlin, he was adorable. He even tried to hold my gaze, wanting to come across as being unaffected. Picking up my parchment, I held it out to him and he made no move to take it. "The translation?"

"Ah right."

Snatching the parchment from me, he ignored the snickers coming from his friend and looked over the translation. Beside us Barnes was unloading the issues he was having with his boyfriend onto Lauren who was trying to insist that it was none of her business. That would have been true if she hadn't been the one to set them up.

Instead of intruding on their conversation, I kept my gaze on Lupin as he looked over the parchment, completely oblivious to my gaze. He was reaching the end of the translation and I knew he found the mistake when his eyebrows furrowed. He checked it twice before looking up to my waiting eyes.

"Will you pass me your translation textbook?"

When I handed it over to him, he flicked through it and found the correct page, sliding the book towards me. He leaned in closer to me, pointing to something on the page.

"You've mixed these two words up," he explained steadily, "and, I'm sure you know that they mean completely different things. It's a really common mistake so don't worry about –" His voice trailed off when he looked up, meeting my eyes. When he realised just how closed we'd gotten, he pushed away from me and cleared his throat.

"Thanks Lupin," I said with a grin, pulling my translation back and fixing my 'accidental' error. Setting my quill down on the table, I turned to the boy. "Smart _and_ handsome; you're the perfect package Lupin."

The words were the trick; his entire face flushed red and try as he might, he couldn't stop the rest of his hair from going pink. The sight of it had me smiling even more as Lupin hurried to face the front of the classroom again. Barnes smothered his chuckles, following suit.

"Why do you keep doing that to Lupin?" Lauren asked curiously, looking suddenly to her own work when the Professor looked up from her desk to do a quick survey of the classroom. "You keep flirting with him on purpose. Why?"

"Because of the way he reacted the first time," I admitted quietly, "the first time I complimented him on doing well on a test – I think it was – his hair turned pink like it still does. It was interesting to see what it took to make him lose control of his metamorphmagus ability."

"And?" she prompted, "I know that's not it."

"I don't know," I said with a slight shrug, "I guess I keep doing it to see if he'll keep reacting in the same way."

"You've never thought about _why_ he reacts the way he does? Like maybe he's developed feelings for you?"

I was silent for a while before asking softly, "Would that be so bad?"

Lauren turned to me with a knowing glance as the lesson came to an end. I began packing my stuff and she did the same. As we walked towards the door she leaned in close to me and asked, "Somewhere along the lines you developed feelings for him?"

"Yes," I said truthfully, seeing no point in trying to deny it.

She nodded to herself before reaching out suddenly, pushing me just as I reached the doorway. A surprised shriek left me and I stumbled on my feet when someone caught me.

"Sorry about that Lupin," Lauren apologised, the picture of innocence. "She's a bit of a klutz sometimes."

Klutz, my foot. I narrowed my eyes at her for a moment before straightening up and looking to Lupin who was staring down at me with wide eyes. His hands were still on my shoulders from where he'd caught me.

I looked over him contemplatively and smiled coyly, "You're pretty athletic too, huh? You really _are_ the perfect package."

He stumbled over his words, trying to figure out a reply and I only smiled in response. Reaching up to pat his cheek, I said a quiet thank you and watched his hair, which until now had slowly been turning turquoise again, shift into a bright pink.

"You should keep it like that," I called out from over my shoulder as I turned to leave the classroom, pulling Lauren alongside me. "It must be a hassle to keep having to gain control over it."

* * *

At the beginning of the year Lupin and I had been assigned to complete our rounds together and for the first few I went out of my way to flirt with him. He was just too cute when he was flustered.

But, spending the entire duration of our rounds flirting with him shook him slightly and I had been forced to cut down a little bit for fear that he would end up in the hospital wing otherwise. That being said, I still made it my aim to try and get his hair to shift into a pink. When I became aware of my feelings for him I had tried to find some other meaning to his behaviour, to his loss of control but I hadn't found much on it – granted I hadn't searched very far. And whilst I might not have understood much about it, it was still fascinating to watch.

We patrolled through the corridors, handling the upper floor in what was known amongst the prefects as the 'make out' route and I was surprised that we hadn't caught anyone yet. Or maybe I'd spoken too soon. The moment we turned the corner, my eyes instantly went to the couple going at it in the corner. Merlin, I thought with a crinkled nose, the bloke looked like he was trying to eat the poor girl's face. I turned to Lupin, wondering whether he'd offer to step in. But of course he didn't. No prefect liked having to break up one of the randy teenage couples that snuck out to the abandoned corners of the castle.

"Why don't we play rock, paper, scissors?" I suggested quietly, meeting the taller boy's eyes. "Loser has to split them up and rescue that girl from the spit shower she's receiving."

Lupin made a face at my words but reached into his pocket, pulling out his wand. "I have a better idea."

Without another word he sent a stinging hex towards the couple. It hit the boy straight in the back, making him stumble away from the girl with a startled cry. He turned then, looking around the corridor to see who had hexed him. When his eyes settled on the pair of us, he paled drastically and I couldn't help but sigh; if he was willing to sneak out after curfew then he needed to be able to handle the consequences.

"Get back to your common rooms," Lupin ordered the pair who hurried away. The boy went to walk past Lupin when he reached out and caught the boy by his robes. "Don't leave so quickly Ben; 10 points from Hufflepuff. _Now_ you can go. Make sure you don't get caught on your way back to the common room and lose us more points."

With those words, Lupin sent the younger Hufflepuff away and we continued our rounds. We didn't get far when I felt the urge to tease Lupin begin to eat away at my composure. I hadn't teased him at all since we began our rounds and that was a record for me. It was only about time I teased him or else he'd grow more anxious about my unusual behaviour, he might even think that I was ill. So really, I was doing this for _his_ benefit.

"So Lupin," I said softly, "have you ever been pulled away to some dark corner of the castle during your rounds? Or are you too innocent to do stuff like that?"

Looking up at him I managed to catch the sight of him rolling his eyes. My eyes instantly went to his hair and I was impressed to see not even the beginning of a pink tint; he was improving.

"I'm not _that_ innocent," he protested, pushing my playfully with his shoulder.

"Oh yeah," I played along, looking up at him. He met my eyes steadily and I found myself coming to a stop. Giving him a teasing grin, I baited, "Prove it."

I expected him to back away from me like he normally would have, but he didn't. Completely unexpectedly, his grin grew and I faltered a little. Something was _very_ wrong with Lupin. Where was the red tipped ears, the awkward shy smile, the pink hair?

"How about I prove it?" he offered, catching me even further off guard.

"Prove it?" I repeated slowly, swallowing nervously.

His grin shifted into a positively Slytherin smirk as he gestured back to where we'd found the couple. "That corner back there seemed very cosy. Why don't we go ahead and try it out?"

My mouth parted slightly and unable to help myself, I took a step closer to him. His eyes flickered slightly, surprised by the action but the reaction was nowhere near his usual self. I rose up, bringing a hand to his forehead.

"Are you ill?" I questioned sincerely, meeting his eyes.

His eyebrows rose and in answer he wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me into his chest. I gasped slightly, feeling my heart begin to race in my chest. Taking a breath to steady my heart, I went to ask him something when he beat me to it. "Is this your way of asking to play doctors, Owens?"

I pushed away from him, coming out of his embrace. "Something is _very_ wrong with you Lupin."

"There's nothing wrong with me," he protested but I wasn't listening.

"There has to be or else you wouldn't be behaving this way." Reaching out to clasp his robe sleeve in my hand, I began to lead him back to the Hufflepuff common room. "Let's get you back to your dorm so you can rest for a bit."

"Want to join me," he offered casually, grinning outright at the half outraged, half worried sound I made. Merlin, he _really_ needed to get some rest.

Becoming more resolute, I led him more forcefully towards his common room despite his protests. When we reached the entrance to the Hufflepuff basement I hurried away from him without even a goodbye. I ran the rest of the way to the Slytherin common room and made my way to my dorm. Lauren was waiting for me on my bed but at the sight of my expression, she rose to her feet.

"What's wrong?"

Swallowing thickly, I said quietly, "I think I broke the Lupin boy."

* * *

By the time the next morning dawned, each of the 6th year Slytherin girls knew about what had happened during my rounds but they didn't believe me. Salazar's soul, even _I_ was having a hard time believing it!

"It happened!" I insisted over the breakfast table, spooning out a helping of scrambled eggs onto my plate. "He was acting so weird; you don't think that he's ill, do you?"

"Well," Juliana said from where she was sat across from me, "considering that from here I can see where Lupin's sat at the Hufflepuff table, he certainly doesn't look ill to me."

"Are you sure about what happened?" Arissa asked suspiciously, following Juliana's gaze and casting a quick glance towards the Hufflepuff in question.

"Of course I am," I exclaimed, making sure they knew how offended I was by their words. "I was there!"

"Are you sure that this isn't just your fantasies leaking over into your subconscious?" Sophie teased from beside Lauren who unsurprisingly was the only one to believe me right from the off.

"Stop it," I protested, sighing and restlessly moving my eggs around my plate. "What am I supposed to do now? How am I supposed to behave around him if this is what he's going to be like from now on?"

"What if," Lauren cut herself off, shaking her head, "Ignore me, I don't know what I'm talking about."

"What if, what?" Arissa prompted, pouring me a glass of juice. I gave her a thankful smile, picking up the glass to take a sip.

"What if this is his way of evening the playing field " Lauren suggested hesitantly.

"There's no way," Juliana said instantly, shaking her head adamantly.

"Is there?" Sophie questioned, looking to me with raised eyebrows.

"There might be," I admitted; we'd all heard the rumours about the mischief Lupin had managed to pull off because of his metamorphagus abilities. "That's it Lauren! Well then, I can't let him get the upper hand, now can I? Not when I was the one that began all of this."

Ignoring the synchronised eye rolls I got from all four of my dormmates, I wondered just when Lupin had decided to play along. What was the final push that had him changing his approach?

"Are you sure about this?" Arissa asked hesitantly, "What if he's serious about this? The way you are?"

"I haven't thought about that," I admitted, expecting my friends to give me an instant reply.

When they didn't, I furrowed my eyebrows and watched as they all clammed up, not speaking another word. Feeling a hand on my shoulder, I looked up to see Lupin standing behind me. He looked down at me with a smile.

"Hope I'm not interrupting," he said, nodding towards my friends in acknowledgement.

"What are you doing here Lupin?" I asked after a moment, "Did you need something?"

"I just wanted to see you," he said boldly and I heard Sophie choke slightly on her drink. Lauren patted her back slowly, keeping her eyes on the Hufflepuff who had rendered all of us immobile.

Narrowing my eyes at him, I turned in my seat to face him. "Why?"

"Because you're downright adorable."

I spluttered, trying to come up with something to say to that but what was there to say. Juliana who had been sitting on my left reached out to pinch my thigh, bringing me out of my embarrassing moment. Composing myself, I tossed my hair back and gave Lupin my most charming grin.

"I'm nowhere near as adorable as you are Lupin."

Lupin's roots began to tinge pink before he could regain control and my shoulders puffed up with pride at the simple occurrence; I still had it. Of course, his control had improved but he was still easily flustered. Underneath this new exterior he was still Lupin – lovable, adorable Lupin.

"What did you really want Lupin?"

"The headmistress is rounding up the prefects," he admitted after a moment. "We're supposed to report to her office during the lunch period."

"What for?"

"Some prefect pairs have been caught sneaking around during rounds." He grinned, lips pulling up further on one side than the other. "It's a shame we weren't one of them."

Without another word, he sauntered away from the Slytherin table with his hands tucked in his pockets. I watched his return to his table and he acted completely oblivious to my eyes. That was, until he sat down in his seat and threw a wink my way. I refused to let it sway me – on the outside at least – and turned back to table as if it was nothing. All while I was melting on the inside.

"See," I hissed when the girls all crowded around me. "I told you he was being weird. What should I do?"

"I'll tell you what you can't do," Juliana piped up, "you can't let him beat you in this. Snakes don't lose to bloody badgers."

* * *

Our N.E.W.T. level Astronomy class met at the astronomy tower late in the night. The stars were out and it was thankfully, a clear night which made this so much easier than it otherwise would have been. The professor had assigned us our work which we needed to complete before we could return to each of our dorms. Staring through the telescope and up into the night sky, I made small notes about what I was seeing.

A shoulder brushed against my own, making me look to the person beside me. Unsurprisingly it was Lupin who, since the lesson had begun, was apparently more fascinated with my face than the stars in the night sky.

"What are you doing?" I asked, focusing on my parchment as I finished jotting down my observations. "Why aren't you watching the stars?"

"It's hardly my fault that the stars are less beautiful than you are," he said smoothly and I almost laughed.

Instead, I turned away from the telescope to face him. Crossing my arms, I looked over him from head to toe and speculated quietly, "How did you become so smooth Lupin? This isn't like the usual you." Raising an eyebrow, I continued, "Do I have some competition or did you learn all of this from books?"

"Just because I like books doesn't mean that I learn everything from then," he insisted with a roll of his eyes.

"Fair enough." My eyes were drawn to his turquoise coloured hair, "Your ability extends to changing your facial features, right?"

He nodded and asked with a teasing grin, "Why? Is this your way of telling me I need to change it somehow? Because, from the amount of time you've spent admiring me I don't think that's the case."

I rolled my eyes, saying nothing to deny it. "I was just curious," I defended with a small frown, turning to lean against the railings. "You have the ability to change your features into anything you want and yet you don't. You must be very confident."

He mirrored my position, leaning against the railing with his shoulder brushing against my own. Turning his face towards mine, he asked quietly, "Should I not be?"

Maintaining my silence for a little while, I looked over each of his facial features. Under the moonlight I could see the small flecks of gold near his iris, the light dusting of freckles across the bridge of his nose and the scar under his eyebrow which he insisted he got by heroically saving his godbrother when the young boy had somehow gotten a hold of his father's broom. My eyes finished their journey, resting on his lips or rather on the way that his bottom lip was just _slightly_ fuller than the upper one. Clearing my throat, I quickly looked away from him and did my very best to ensure that I didn't blush. There was minimal success.

"You should be confident," I murmured, agreeing quietly as I resolutely looked away from him. Shaking away the mild embarrassment, I looked back to him with a teasing grin, "You're the type of guy most girls would die to be with; there seems to be no flaw."

He grinned outright at my words, leaning in closer to me and nudging me teasingly. "Really? I had no idea I was such a good catch. I could say the same about you Owens. Perfect from head to toe."

Rolling my eyes I assured him, "That couldn't be further from the truth; you _really_ don't know me."

"Don't I?" he wondered, cocking his head curiously. "I happen to think I know you very well. And because I know you so well, I know how little you give people compliments – well people that aren't me anyway. I know you mean every single one too."

"How do you know I was giving you a compliment?" I asked airily, propping my elbow up on the railing and setting my chin in my palm.

"Weren't you?"

"I don't know," I admitted quietly with a one shouldered shrug. "I mean – I guess you could be considered most people's type."

"But not yours," he guessed, straightening up and looking at me seriously.

"This version of you isn't my type," I spoke truthfully, casting him a brief glance. In the short glimpse, I watched him become a little conflicted at my words. The short sentence was as close to a confession as I was going to give him.

With a sigh, he regained his position beside me and turned to look at me. "Well, what is your type then?"

"My type," I said thoughtfully, staring out into the night sky. "My type is the more shy, sincere type. The original Teddy Lupin, you could say – not that this one isn't attractive too. This just isn't the real version of you."

"Noted." Teddy nodded slowly.

I pushed away from the railings, picking up my parchment which I'd set aside. Returning to the telescope I'd long forgotten, I started to work again and he completed his own work in silence by my side.

* * *

In the days following our conversation at the astronomy tower we hadn't shared a single lesson and neither had we been assigned to complete rounds together. The next opportunity to see each other was during the prefect's meeting where we were being assigned new patrol schedules. After the meeting came to an end, I was leaving the room with my fellow Slytherin prefects when Teddy approached the group of us. I parted from the group, meeting the Hufflepuff prefect half way.

"Did you need something?" I asked curiously, watching him shake his head.

"We need to talk," he explained, before gesturing for me to begin walking again. "I'll walk you to your common room."

I accepted the offer, watching him closely. When he made no attempt to begin this talk that he wanted, I reached out to touch his arm. "Whatever it is you want to talk about Lupin, just spill without worrying about how you're going to say it."

"That's probably a good idea," he agreed with a single nod. Looking out into the corridor, he cleared his throat and asked, "How long is this game of ours going to last, Owens?"

"Game," I repeated slowly. Lauren had been right; this was him evening the playing field.

"Yeah, game. This game where we flirt outrageously with each other without worrying about who's around us and cause all these rumours to sprout up. How long is that game supposed to last?"

Casting him a curious glance, I watched him look briefly down at me before looking away from me again. My hands, hanging at my side, fisted my robes as I admitted quietly, "I'm not sure?"

"Well, we have this unspoken thing between us where we don't date anyone else," he said after a moment's consideration. "But it's a bit confusing because we're not dating either? I'm not quite sure _what_ we are."

"If you don't like not being able to date someone else," I began coolly, unconsciously speeding up in my steps when I recognised that this conversation was going in a different direction to what I had anticipated, "then you can date someone else. Like you said, it's not like we're dating Lupin."

My words had him stopping suddenly in his steps. I glanced curiously back at him, naturally stopping when I realised he'd fallen behind.

"Are you?" he asked, his question echoing around the empty hallway. "Dating someone else, that is?"

"No," I admitted without a second's hesitation.

"Good." He nodded to himself before jogging up to me and dropping into step beside me. We began to walk again when he spoke firmly, "Because once this game is over then I'm ready to be serious about this."

"Serious?" I repeated softly as we reached the common room. I made no move to enter the room, wanting to hear the rest of whatever it was that he had to say to me.

Lupin stood beside me, hands tucked into his trouser pockets. Rocking slightly onto the heels of his feet as he spoke, "Yeah, once this is all over, you're mine Owens."

My eyebrows rose in surprise at the sudden declaration. "You're rather possessive, Lupin. I'm not sure how I feel about that."

Taking a step towards me, Lupin was suddenly closer to me. Maybe too close. I glanced down at my shoes and found that the front of his were touching mine. When I looked back up his face was there, barely inches from mine. Swallowing nervously, I met his eyes head on. Without a word, he drew in closer to me and I found myself drawing back slightly in surprise. His eyes flickered to mine and I held my breath, waiting as he continued to draw closer to me. It became obvious that he wasn't going to kiss me, at least not properly and I felt mild disappointment brew inside me. That all fled when he pressed a kiss to my cheek and straightened up quickly.

He rose to his full height and I was left staring at him in surprise. Looking over me, Lupin allowed a small smirk to pull at his lips; he knew the effect he had on me.

"Don't expect to win this game, Owens."

With those words, he walked away from me and I was left watching his back. A slightly incredulous smile pulled at my lips as I turned to the entrance of the common room.

"We'll see," I muttered to myself.

I needed to talk to the girls and come up with a battle plan. Now that the whole feelings part of this game had been sorted out, it was just a matter of pride. Neither of us was willing to admit defeat and I wasn't going to be the one to lose.

I found my dormmates sat around one of the sofas in the common room and instantly made my way towards them. Upon seeing me, they welcomed me over to them.

"What kept you so long?" Arissa asked, looking up from the edition of Witch Weekly that was open on her lap. "Didn't the meeting end a while back?"

"Teddy wanted to talk to me," I explained, squishing in between Sophie and Lauren.

"What did he want?" Juliana questioned, rifling through the back of sweets she'd bought from Honeydukes during the last Hogsmeade trip. She handed the bag around.

"He wanted to tell me that once our game was over, he was willing to become serious," I said absentmindedly, helping myself to a caramel chocolate.

"How can you say that so casually?" Sophie demanded and I shrugged.

"Truthfully, I'm more concerned about what he said after," I admitted, unwrapping the chocolate and popping it into my mouth. "He told me not to expect to win and now obviously, I'm not going to let him win."

"You can't," Arissa agreed.

"But I don't know how to win either," I whined petulantly, propping my head against Lauren's shoulder. "Salazar, I'm not even sure what rules there are to this bloody game."

"You're the one that began this game," Lauren said with obvious amusement. "But surely you know when the game is over?"

Sighing slightly, I muttered, "I don't know that either."

"I guess it ends when one of you admit defeat and surrender?" Arissa suggested, closing her magazine. "You just need to get him to admit defeat."

"But _how_ do I do that?" Juliana and Sophie shared a look, one that made me very uncomfortable, "No, whatever you're about to say – no."

"You didn't even hear them out," Lauren admonished, gesturing to Sophie to speak.

"Try to make him jealous?" she suggested and I watched her incredulously.

"Salazar, no!"

"There's no harm in trying," Arissa argued, "You just need to find someone to play along."

Realising that there was no point in even attempting to argue with them, I sighed and conceded. "Like who?"

Lauren glanced around the common room and called out, "Oi, Warrington!"

The fair-haired boy broke away from the conversation he was having to approach us. When he stood before the five of us, he nodded to acknowledge us and gave Lauren a flat look. "What do you want?"

"Remember that favour you owe me? I'm calling it in."

* * *

I found myself in Ancient Ruins again when Lauren decided that the lesson was the perfect time to enact the plan. She arranged for Warrington to sit in her seat beside me and she took his place at the back of the classroom. When Teddy walked into the room he made his way to his seat, directly in front of me and did a double take when he saw who my desk mate was. Warrington, seeing this, leaned in close to me whilst keeping his eyes on Teddy who had yet to take his seat. I didn't dare look at Teddy to see how he was reacting.

Warrington's nose brushed against my cheek as he turned to whisper in my ear, "Don't get the wrong idea about this Owens, I'm only doing this because I owed Fenwick a favour. Nothing else."

"Don't be concerned about me getting the wrong idea," I assured him quietly, turning towards him. "You're _really_ not my type."

Teddy threw his bag, heavy from all the textbooks it contained, on the table and the sound it made had me jumping away from Warrington. I looked at him with wide eyes. He looked like he was trying his hardest not to demand to know what was going on.

With an easy smile, I met his eyes. "Good morning."

"Morning," he muttered and turned his eyes to my partner. "Warrington."

"Lupin."

Teddy took to his seat and the lesson began as each did with our Professor talking us through one of the different types of ruinic alphabets that were used in the wizarding world. Once the explanation had been finished, the passage that we needed to translate was carefully copied onto the board at the front of the classroom. As our professor returned to her desk, the volume in the classroom rose as everyone started to chatter between themselves. Warrington took the chance to begin the ploy.

From the outside it must have looked like we were flirting with each other but we really weren't. It turned out that Warrington had an amazing sense of humour and he kept whispering jokes to me that no one else could hear. The jokes had me giggling loud enough to irritate Teddy's ears. He kept throwing glances over his shoulder which I pretended not to notice. Poor Barnes was having a hard time trying to placate Teddy.

Teddy finally turned back to his desk with a sigh and I thought that perhaps we had pushed him too far when he turned to face my desk suddenly, with his parchment in his hand. I still didn't look his way and playfully pushed Warrington away from me.

"Stop it Lucian," I said with a smile.

Warrington turned his eyes to Teddy, smirked slightly and turned back to his own translation. I looked to Teddy, raising an eyebrow curiously.

"Teddy?"

"Would you check this for me?" He held the parchment out to me.

"Of course." It didn't take long to compare his translation to mine and I was unsurprised to find absolutely nothing wrong with it. He clearly hadn't been able to think of a better excuse. I held it back out for Teddy to take, "It's perfect Teddy."

Even as he took it, he didn't turn away. Instead he leaned towards me slightly, "Are you –"

Warrington cut in quickly, taking my hand. I concealed my surprise, looking to Warrington who asked me to check something. Turning away from Teddy I leaned in closer to Warrington to read over his work. I tried my very best to check his work with all my attention but it was extremely hard to do when I was so completely aware of the male posturing going on between the two boys.

The end of the lesson saved me from having to step in before the tension between them reached breaking point. I packed my things quickly, wanting to leave this situation quickly. But when I went to leave the room I became aware of Teddy who was waiting for me by the doorway. I brushed past him and stepped into the corridor.

"You were flirting in there," he hissed, outraged as he walked beside me. "Don't even try to deny it Owens. You've been flirting with me all year so I can tell." He waited impatiently for me to say something. "Well?"

Stopping in my step, I faced him head on, "Is it a crime to be flirting with a cute boy? Especially when we're not serious yet?"

"Not serious yet?" he repeated incredulously, eyebrows shooting to his hairline. He narrowed his eyes at me.

"Our game's not over yet, Lupin. Remember?"

"Well it's over now! So quit your flirting."

I let myself grin then, rising slightly to my toes to bring my face closer to his. "Does this mean I win?"

My words brought him out of his jealous stupor and he shook his head adamantly. "No."

"Ok," I said with a shrug. "Fine." From over his shoulder I saw Warrington finally leave the room. "Lucian!"

Just as I went to brush past him to join my fellow Slytherin, Teddy took my arm and pulled me back towards him. I gestured for Warrington to leave and turned my attention back to the Hufflepuff. Teddy sighed and I raised an eyebrow.

"Fine," he muttered begrudgingly, "you win."

I grinned widely. Rising fully to my toes, I pressed a kiss to his cheek and the frown instantly left his face.

"No flirting," he reminded me when I pulled back from him. "Remember what I said – once the game was over we become serious."

"Why would I flirt with other guys when we're serious now?"

Teddy shook his head incredulously, even as an amused smile pulled at his lips. He sounded extremely fond when he said, "You really are something else."

"I'm taking that as a compliment," I informed him as I reached up to touch a strand of his hair which had shifted colour the moment he'd walked into Ruins. He either hadn't had the control to change it back or he hadn't noticed it yet. "You know, green is not a good colour on you."


	2. Epilogue: 8 Years Later

_8 YEARS LATER_

The clock had just struck 11 o'clock and it was long past the time for us to receive any guests. So really, there was no reason for the fireplace to suddenly light up in preparation for an arrival via the floo network. I had just walked into the front room with a bowl of popcorn when I saw the fireplace. Setting the bowl of popcorn down on the table next to the DVD we were planning on watching, I walked slowly towards the fireplace.

Out tumbled a lanky dark-haired boy who was standing rather unsteadily on his feet. He wobbled slightly, arms spread out on either side of him as he tried to gain some stability. When he looked up I could see his face and I let out a relieved breath. It was short lasted. In a matter of seconds concern began to fill me.

"James?" I called out cautiously as I approached the boy, "What are you doing here?"

"There's the sister-in-law to-be," he crowed excitedly, moving towards me.

"Teddy and I are not engaged," I reminded James who rolled his eyes, only to pitch forward suddenly.

I caught him before he could hit the floor. Wrapping my arms around the boy who was nuzzling sluggishly into my shoulder I called out for Teddy as I walked James towards the sofa. The younger boy towered over me and wasn't being particularly helpful in my attempts to move him. When we reached the sofa, Teddy made his appearance into the room.

I almost laughed at his appearance; his wand was drawn at his side as if he expected an intruder. He had clearly just run out of his shower and had haphazardly slung a towel around his waist.

"You can put your wand away," I said dryly, easing James down onto the sofa. "Your godbrother decided to give us an unexpected visit and I wanted your help getting him to sit down."

"Oh," he cleared his throat, lowering his wand to his side and tightening the towel around his waist. "Let me put some clothes on and I'll be back."

As Teddy left the room I settled down beside James whose mood had taken a sudden turn. He was lying on his side, curled up into a ball. Reaching out to run a soothing hand through the younger boy's hair, I waited to see if he would tell me what was wrong.

When it became clear that he was willing to mope in his drunk stupor, I sighed and asked, "What's got you so upset, Potter? What happened?"

"I'm so embarrassed," he moaned, covering his face with his hands.

"Embarrassed? Why?"

He refused to answer me and I looked to the doorway of the room which Teddy had just walked in through. Meeting my eyes, Teddy silently motioned for me to leave the two godbrothers alone for a moment. I made my way to the kitchen knowing that Teddy would find out what was upsetting his godbrother.

Upon reaching the kitchen, I made a beeline for the potion cupboard. Rifling through it, I located the sobering potion and diluted a small dosage in a glass of water. I took my time to return to the front room, knowing that James would clam up the moment I walked into the room. And sure enough, he did. Handing him the glass of water, I watched him greedily down the entire glass and the potion took immediate effect.

Within minutes sleep was making its way for James who had to lean on Teddy for support on his trip to the guest bedroom. Honestly, how many times was that boy going to drink past his limit before he learnt when to stop?

"What happened?" I asked once Teddy returned from making sure that James was alright.

Rolling his eyes as he settled down onto the sofa, Teddy stretched his arms slowly. He patted the space next to him. "He freaked out because he told his girlfriend that he loved her."

Settling against him, I wondered, "And that's a problem because?"

"Because he's never told her that before. He chickened out straight away and left before she could say anything."

"I _really_ don't understand boys," I muttered, shaking my head.

"Hey," he protested, coming to the defence of his entire gender. "You _still_ haven't said it."

Recognising the danger of the topic, I rose to my feet and made my way towards our bedroom. Teddy followed right behind me.

"Where are you going?"

"One of us needs to owl the Potters," I muttered, walking quickly into the bedroom. "Otherwise his parents are going to spend the night concerned about their missing son."

As I headed towards the desk in the corner of the room, he caught my arm and pulled me gently back towards him. I glanced hesitantly up at him, meeting his eyes after a long moment.

"I'm not trying to rush you or anything," he assured me, "but _why_ haven't you said it yet? I know how you feel but it's been _years_."

"Like you said, you already know how I feel," I tried to reason but he wasn't buying it. Glancing away from him, I bit my bottom lip before admitting quietly, "It's embarrassing."

"It's embarrassing?" he repeated slowly before chuckling incredulously. "You weren't embarrassed when I walked in on you singing into your hairbrush and yet saying 3 little words embarrasses you?"

I nodded slowly, not sure where to look. Releasing my arm, Teddy stepped closer to me and pressed a kiss to the top of my head.

"You really are one of a kind Owens," he murmured affectionately. "Go and write the letter, I should probably check on James."

I watched his back as he left the room and wondered internally, maybe the short period of embarrassment would be worth the look on his face when I finally told him?


End file.
